Tuesday, February 1, 2011

January 2011

Here's to 2011! Our update for this month.

JARED
Jared got some new glasses. Pretty good-looking isn't he? This month he has been busy with work, Elder's Quorum, and taking care of the rest of us at home. He has also been working on his New Year's goal to learn French. Four nights a week he studies French with the Rosetta Stone language program, and he has been making great progress.


MARY
I stay busy being a mom and taking care of Margaux. Lately I've been working on goals to exercise and use my time in the evenings more effectively.


ABBY Abby is finally old enough to be my helper. Luckily she is still at that stage where she thinks helping and chores are fun. I am very excited that she now can vacuum. After dinner Maddy and Abby like to pretend they are "worker bees" (I of course am the queen bee) and run around helping me clean up the house before bed.
The kids get quite stir-crazy on days when it's too cold to go outside, so we have started weekly trips to the mall. Here is Abby riding an airplane. I always let the kids sit in the rides, but I've never put money in so they don't know what they're missing. I figure it's good for their imagination as well as my wallet.

Here's my girl always on the ball. In addition to reading and doing her first grade workbook everyday, she has just started piano lessons with me at home. We are proud of her learning so much and becoming more obedient and responsible.


MADDY
Maddy came up to me looking like this. She is always creative and has a fun sense of humour.


Here she is doing arts and crafts. Her Primary teacher always tells us how amazed she is by Maddy's coloring and artistic skills. I think we have a little artist in the making.

"Riding" the horse at the mall. We love our sweet Madeline.


NATHAN

Nathan loves to go for rides in his new wagon.

Look at the cute smile. He already has the Nursery workers at church wrapped around his little fingers. He isn't 18 months for another week, but he has been going to Nursery for the past month. The teachers said we didn't have to stay with him because he was so well behaved--no tantrums, no crying when we left, etc. The only problem so far is that he sometimes likes to steal snacks from the other kids. Now if we could only get him to walk!

He stands and walks a lot holding onto things, but he still doesn't have very good balance. Here he is vacuuming while he holds onto the wall.

I don't know if you can read the words on the shirt, but it says "Here comes trouble." Nathan has a sweet temperament but he is also very good at getting into trouble. Some of his favorite trouble spots in our house: The changing table (Desitin tastes good, don't you think?), electrical outlets, the phone, daddy's laptop, the computer power button, and of course mom's pots and pans.

He is really proud of himself now that he can climb up on his rocking horse and go for rides. We love our little Nathan buddy.

6 comments:

Ruth said...

They are adorable! They look so kissable. I can't believe how much Nathan is growing. I love the update but think you should put a picture of yourself there as well.

Courtney Ekman said...

Thanks for the update! I cannot BELIEVE how big Abby is getting - as I was reading about how she loves to help clean, I had a flashback to when Sydney and I would come visit teach in Pennsylvania and she was barely waddling around - it really does not seem like it could have been that long ago! Where does the time fly?!

Nicole said...

YEs, thanks for always keeping us up to date! Hope you guys are hanging in there through the wintery months. This is like our summer here as we're stuck inside during the summer months, so when its cold and we have to stay in, the kids go crazy! Wish we could come play with the cousins, it looks like they'd get along so well!

One mom said...

It is amazing how much older your kids look with every post, even though we just saw them at Christmas. I also think you have a little artist in the making. Thanks for the cute Valentines. Courtney put them on her wall next to her bed.

Kate said...

I love Nathan's smile. So cute!

Lizzy started nursery a month early, too. I'm sure it's not always the case, but I bet in the cases of our little ones, being the third child helps - being adaptable and following the example of the older sibs.

Glad you're all doing so well!

Astromom said...

Oh, I want to see you sooo much, your coming up here soon still right? Jared looks handsome, it is awesome when your kids start being able to help, Maddy is so creative and Nathan is just adorable. What a beautiful family, but I agree with Ruth I want to see a picture or two of you too.